There is no question that 2009 was an historic year for the Hawkeye State. From the Iowa Supreme Court decision in April legalizing same-sex marriage to Iowa’s U.S. senators becoming instrumental in the health care reform debate that raged in the nation’s capital to the Republicans with 2012 dreams looking for some caucus karma, there was no shortage of big stories in 2009.

But this isn’t about those stories. Quite the opposite, actually. This is about the stories that, for one reason or another, fell through the cracks, at least in Iowa. And while it’s far from an exhaustive list, it does show why a wide variety of media voices is important. More eyes on the hunt for the overlooked stories helps ensure they don’t remain overlooked forever.

Here are a few of Iowa’s most overlooked and under reported stories of 2009, as reported by The Iowa Independent.

Iowa’s coal ash rules could pose threat to public health

Over the course of 2009, The Iowa Independent meticulously laid out the problems with Iowa’s rules governing coal ash, eventually leading to the state’s largest public universities deciding to implement groundwater testing at the coal ash disposal site they share.

Can chemical abortions be linked to Midwestern ag?

Driving across a rural Iowa highway, anti-abortion signs are almost as common a sight as farmers spraying crops. Now there is a growing body of evidence linking the substances sprayed on fields to human reproductive health issues, including unintended abortions.

Farmer suicides spotlight lack of mental health care in rural America

The psychological attachment farm families feel for their land and livestock is one of the lessons of the 1980s farm crisis — a time when farmer suicides and rural violence made front page news across the nation. Back then, Iowa and Nebraska, two states severely impacted by the farm crisis, developed crisis hotlines designed specifically to serve the needs of agricultural workers. Today, in the wake of natural disasters and in the midst of economic uncertainty, the hotlines are experiencing a spike in activity, likely helping to prevent more tragedies.

Wells Fargo accused of racial discrimination in Des Moines lending practices

Research shows that minority homeowners in Des Moines are three times as likely to receive high-cost subprime mortgage loans from Wells Fargo & Co. as white homeowners.

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham catches flak for PAC-funded trips

More than 25 percent of funds raised by Rep. Tom Latham’s political action committee during the 2008 election cycle paid for trips to resorts around the country, including golf outings in West Virginia and a weekend getaway to Atlantic City, N.J.

Iowa study finds worrisome arsenic levels in private water wells

A two-year study found that the Hawkeye State’s rural private drinking water wells “have several contaminant problems, some long-standing and some emerging.”And while nitrate and bacteria detections were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome.

For three decades, rules governing the disposal coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal, have been left up to states, creating a patchwork of differing regulations with questionable effectiveness. However, after the massive coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn., last year, which resulted in nearly a billion gallons of coal ash sludge flooding 300 acres of land, the EPA promised it would finally regulate coal ash.

But some fear the new rules may only cover ash stored in wet ponds, leaving sites many consider the most dangerous in the Hawkeye State unregulated.

A report released last month by the U.S. Government Accountability Office laid out several potential options for federal regulations. Included among the possibilities is designating coal ash as a hazardous material if it’s kept wet, and non-hazardous if it’s moved to a dry landfill.

In Iowa, environmentalists are most concerned with disposal of dry coal ash in unlined, unmonitored former quarries and mines that received a waiver from the state allowing them to use the ash as fill. The sites face little state oversight and few regulations.

And because the sites are considered dry landfills, many fear new federal regulations wouldn’t apply.

“Regulating wet coal combustion waste as hazardous waste is an important first step, but it doesn’t go far enough,” said Carrie Le Seur, founder and president of Cedar Rapids environmental law center Plains Justice. “The EPA itself has documented many cases of proven damage around the country where coal ash landfills have contaminated groundwater because water leaches through the fill site.”

Coal ash contains much greater concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium than coal itself, but it is currently not considered hazardous waste by federal law. An EPA report released earlier this year found the cancer risk to be 1 in 2,000 from exposure to arsenic in drinking water for residents living near unlined landfills containing coal ash and coal refuse, which is 500 times the level usually regarded as safe by current federal regulations.

The fear among environmentalists is that using it as fill in a quarry or mine reclamation project could result in the toxins leaching off the site into groundwater, something which has been documented in other states. Even in Iowa, officials with the state’s Department of Natural Resources have said contamination could already be occurring, but without monitoring it would go undetected.

“This contamination process can take many years, but for nearby residents, the health risk is very real,” Le Seur said. “The difference between coal ash and municipal waste is that every time a coal ash fill leaks, it leaks toxic heavy metals that poison human beings and other living things. We know that.”

Numerous paths to regulation

The GAO document said the wet-dry designation was only one potential method of regulating coal ash. Also under consideration is for federal guidelines to mirror the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s subtitle D, which would regulate coal ash at the federal level as a solid waste. The ash would not be considered hazardous waste and regulation would largely be left up to the state. Iowa’s DNR has come out in support of this method, saying it would force the state’s most potentially hazardous sites to install protective liners, test groundwater for contamination, and provide financial assurances and corrective action provisions, among other provisions.

Opponents of this method say the EPA couldn’t inspect disposal sites or require permits, and public involvement would be limited. They also contend states may not be able to regulate the sites as well as the federal government due to lack of resources.

Another option would be regulating the ash using RCRA subtitle C, which would designate coal ash as hazardous. Under Subtitle C, states are required to adopt regulations that are at least as stringent as whatever federal standards are set up and the EPA will have the power to inspect sites and bring enforcement actions.

Opponents of this method say it would be prohibitively expensive and would eliminate any and all beneficial use of coal ash in most states.

State action

Iowa’s DNR worked for nearly a year on rules to toughen regulations on coal ash disposal. But opposition from site owners and coal-burning businesses, along with uncertainty about what regulations the federal government may eventually impose, caused the effort to stall.

Several elected officials have said that once the EPA releases its draft rules, the state may need to rework its rules to make sure the public health is protected.

In July, Charlotte Hubbell, chair of the state’s Environmental Protection Commission, called on the state legislature to hold public hearings on tougher rules regarding coal ash.

The chair of the state Senate Environment and Energy Independence Committee, Sen. Dennis Black of Grinnell, said at the time that he would request that Legislative Council, a bipartisan group of Senate and House leaders that serves as a steering committee for the General Assembly when it is not in session, to appoint a committee to look into the matter after the 2010 session. He said doing so before the EPA released its rules would be improper.

In September, Gov. Chet Culver joined the call, saying he was confident the EPA would take the appropriate steps, but if state action was needed there should be no hesitation. He said he was open to the legislature looking at the issue in 2010.

State Sen. Dennis Black, D-Grinnell, and state Rep. Donovan Olson, D-Boone, said there are big enough concerns regarding disposal of the toxic byproduct of burning coal to warrant the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), an arm of the state’s Department of Natural Resources that provides policy oversight, to conduct public hearings to see if tougher regulations are needed.

“A public hearing process would allow us to look at all our options and make an informed decision,” Olson said. “I think this is the obvious step.”

Last year, the state DNR began drafting tougher rules on coal ash disposal, in particular, disposal at unlined former quarries and mines that received a waiver from the state allowing them to use ash as fill. Environmental groups say this type of disposal method poses an enormous risk to public health. Without liners, toxins such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium could leach out of the site and into groundwater supplies, and without monitoring equipment, there is no way of knowing if contamination is already taking place.

The process stalled, however, because of pressure applied by disposal-site owners and coal-burning businesses. The EPC vowed to continue investigating the need for tougher regulations, but in March the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would redraft federal regulations for coal ash disposal, effectively halting any action on coal ash at the state level.

Officials with the DNR said it will wait and see what the EPA comes up with before considering changing rules in Iowa.

Olson said even if the federal government is looking into coal ash regulations, the state should still conduct public hearings and investigate possible rule changes or legislation regarding coal ash.

“The issues we face generally are the same as other states, but because of our topography and other factors we face different challenges,” he said. “We need to design our own regulations. The EPC has a public hearing process and I think what they come up with would give us good direction as to where we should go as far as legislation that would make sense.”

Black agreed, saying any federal rule-making process could get bogged down by lobbyists and end up producing regulations that do not “protect the public water supply.”

Olson said his personal preference would be to mandate some sort of liner at each of the sites, but he would like to see the issue studied to ensure the state is protecting its citizens without causing undue harm to the business community.

“I’m hoping we see some sort of direction on that issue from the EPC, some sort of modification to the current rules to protect the environment and public health going forward,” he said.

While the legislature generally does not interfere with the EPC’s rule-making process, Black said if no action were taken, legislators could conduct hearings themselves.

“The legislature makes the law,” he said. “We can bypass EPC. Generally if they are in the rule-making process we do not interfere with creating a law. If there is no rule making underway, anyone can introduce a bill to make it happen.”

In that scenario, the Legislative Council, a bipartisan group of Senate and House leaders that serves as a steering committee for the General Assembly when it is not in session, could appoint a committee to look into the issue. It would have the authority to hold meetings, call for testimony and direct the DNR or EPC staff to undertake the essential research, Black said.

Black, who has professional experience as a natural resource analyst and consultant, said he is surprised that the issue has not already been brought before his legislative committee.

The process could get a jump start on Tuesday. At its June meeting, the EPC has requested Donna Wong-Gibbons, public health specialist with environmental law center Plains Justice, give a presentation on the potential health risks associated with disposal of coal ash in unlined, unmonitored sites.

Wong-Gibbons said a recently released report by the EPA showing a much higher cancer risk for those living near unlined disposal sites than previously thought, along with the media attention the report garnered, has piqued interest in the issue among state regulators.

Another factor also appears to play into the increased interest. When Republicans blocked Gov. Chet Culver’s appointment of Plains Justice President Carrie La Seur to the Iowa Power Fund Board in April, the governor vowed to find another role for her in state government. He followed through on that promise and she was appointed to the EPC.

“She is new to the board, but I assume she will be a strong advocate for this issue,” Black said.

A 2002 report by the Environmental Protection Agency released for the first time last week after being kept secret by the Bush administration shows much higher health risks to those living near sites used to store ash or sludge from coal-fired power plants than previously thought.

Advocates for tougher disposal rules are outraged by the new report.  They say federal inaction has led to an expansion of unmonitored disposal sites in Iowa. Since 2000, the year the EPA last considered tougher regulations, the Hawkeye state has added three of these sites — former quarries and mine complexes environmentalists argue pose a big public health threat since they were built without a liner to contain toxins and have been left without groundwater monitoring equipment.

Coal ash contains high concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium. Environmentalists fear these toxins could leach into groundwater supplies, damage ecosystems and jeopardize human health at the four sites that received a waiver from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources allowing them to accept coal ash without following landfill standards.

Carrie La Seur, president and founder of the Plains Justice, a Cedar Rapids-based public interest environmental law center, said that because federal environmental officials didn’t disclose health risks associated with coal ash disposal, opponents of tougher rules in Iowa were able to take a public position in opposition to increased public health protections for these sites on the grounds that it would cost too much and there was no proven risk.

The state DNR worked for more than a year on draft rules to better regulate these disposal sites. But opposition from site owners and coal-burning businesses, along with uncertainty about what regulations the federal government may eventually impose, caused the effort to stall. Opponents pointed out that there is no evidence of toxins leaching into groundwater supplies in Iowa.

But the EPA report released last week found the cancer risk to be 1 in 2,000 from exposure to arsenic in drinking water for residents living near unlined landfills containing coal ash and coal refuse, which is 500 times the level usually regarded as safe by current federal regulations.

The government’s secrecy gave opponents of tougher rules a leg to stand on for many years, Le Seur said, and it has put many people’s health at risk.

“These days, most people’s capacity for outrage is just about exhausted, but yes, this is outrageous,” she said. “We deserve much better from our government.”

When contacted by the Iowa Independent for comment on the 2002 report, an EPA spokeswoman, Adora Andy, issued a statement saying only that new rules would be ready for public comment by the end of the year.

Chad Stobbe, the DNR’s lead staffer on coal ash issues, said he could not comment on the report until he has seen it, saying he has only had the chance to read summaries of the report issued by the two environmental groups that released it.

Failure to act

The EPA indicated it was interested in more stringent federal controls of coal ash disposal in 2000. According to the Center for Public Integrity, federal regulations would have for the first time covered the dumping of coal ash in ponds, landfills, quarries and mine pits. But strong resistance from disposal site owners, utilities and even some states slowed the process, and when the Bush administration’s EPA took over, focus shifted from disposal of coal ash to promotion of its beneficial reuse.

In Iowa, former quarries and mines that have received beneficial use waivers from the state to store coal ash as part of the effort to reclaim or re-purpose the abandoned industrial sites are of great concern to environmentalists. These sites are not subject to many environmental regulations, do not have state-of-the-art liners and they’re owners are not required to monitor possible groundwater contamination.

Since the push for federal regulations stalled in 2000, three disposal sites in Iowa received beneficial use waivers and began accepting coal ash — Wendling Quarries in Goose Lake, Waterloo South Quarry in Waterloo and the Violet M. Meier Gravel Pit in Boone. The Boone site had its waiver revoked by the DNR in 2004 due to dust issues.

Now, environmentalists hope the EPA follows through with its current promise to institute federal regulations on coal ash disposal before more sites pop up. President Obama’s EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, recently said her agency would begin drafting new regulations for coal ash, likely to be released by the end of 2009.

But some are worried that the new rules will focus on surface impoundments and coal ash ponds like the one in Kingston, Tenn., that failed late last year, spilling nearly a billion gallons of coal ash sludge. It garnered headlines and sparked the recent calls for tougher regulations. The design of the faulty disposal site in Tennessee is very different from those used in Iowa, but both types of disposal sites could pose a danger to public health.

Stobbe said the DNR’s bureau chief has been active in the federal rule-making process, and he is confident the new rules will address the issue here in Iowa.

“Nothing is final, but they are still on target from my understanding to have proposed rules ready for public comment by the end of the year,” he said. “The EPA has been indicating to us that new regulations would address sites like quarries that received beneficial use waivers. But until we receive what they propose, we have no way of really knowing for sure.”

Until the new federal guidelines are issued, the state will not move on any new regulations of its own, Stobbe said.

If the EPA’s timeline is met and rules are ready for public comment by the end of the year, Stobbe said it would likely still take two years before sites are mandated to be in compliance.

“If they come out in January, there could be a six-month comment period and allow some time for the states to adopt new standards, which could take up to two years,” he said.

If it turns out federal guidelines don’t address Iowa’s issues, the DNR’s rulemaking process could take more than a year, with a three-year time frame to be in compliance, Stobbe said.

More disposal sites?

With the long process of drafting new rules and the uncertainly of what will eventually emerge from the EPA, many fear that more unlined, unmonitored coal ash disposal sites could crop up before new regulations are in place. Kelly Fuller, communications director for Plains Justice, pointed out that even after unlined sites are forced to install liners, unless extensive cleanups takes place “there could still be contamination problems.”

The EPA report suggests that environmental contamination from these types of storage sites could last for a century or longer.

Stobbe said there are no sites currently requesting beneficial use waivers, and to the best of his knowledge, there are no site owners contemplating making a request.

The process for obtaining a beneficial use waiver is relatively simple. A site owner submits a request indicating location and detailing geological information of the site. The DNR would then look into the potential waste stream in order to test the ash to help avoid any toxins leaching out of the site.

“Not just anyone can pull up with a truck full of [coal] ash and dump it in the quarry,” Stobbe said. “Each individual waste stream has to be analyzed and approved.”

However, the process requires no public notice or public hearing for the site owners. In fact, there is no public input whatsoever. While all the requests and information is public record, rules governing beneficial use waivers do not dictate any sort of public awareness or consultation requirement.

Stobbe said the DNR has begun requesting approval from a local entity when granting waivers. While not mandated by law, the state will ask a local planning and zoning board or a board of supervisors to sign off on the project. To date, that has only occurred once. The Wendling Quarries in Goose Lake began accepting coal ash in December 2008 after receiving approval from Clinton County Zoning Administrator Paul Ketelsen in January of 2008.

In a letter to Wendling Quarries Inc. and the Iowa DNR, Ketelsen said since coal ash meets all state requirements for beneficial use it is not required to be disposed of in a sanitary landfill. Therefore local zoning ordinances would not apply.

“It appears that this proposal to dispose of fly ash at quarry sites in Clinton County can proceed,” the letter said.

The Iowa Independent contacted Ketelsen and all three of the members of the Clinton County Board of Supervisors for comment. Only one board member, John Staszewski, responded, and said he has only been in office five months and was not able to comment on the situation.

The end date of a legislative session is traditionally dictated by the length of time lawmakers receive daily expense payments.  This year, the payments end May 1. But Democratic leaders have repeatedly said they want to adjourn early to save money and help with the state’s budget crunch. In order to do that, though, legislators will have to put the finishing touches on several bills or abandon them for at least another year.

First on the docket is legislation that would revamp the state’s sex offender laws. At 6:30 p.m. tonight, the public will get a chance to sound off on the measure, which ends the ban on sex offenders living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care and replaces it with restrictions on where they can go. It would make places like schools, day cares and parks off limits.

The 2,000-foot rule would still apply to the most dangerous offenders.

Legislators and Gov. Chet Culver have been working out the bill’s details for more than a week and Republicans have said they would be willing to change the law, which law enforcement officials have said for years was unworkable.

“We’ll give a very, very hard look at this and if it’s good for Iowa families and Iowa children, we will be supportive of that,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton.

Democrats are also working on legislation that would borrow $700 million to pay for public construction projects and flood recovery. The details of the bills remain sketchy, but one thing that is clear is that they will differ from the original proposal put forth by Culver, which called for spending on road and bridge projects.

A Democratic tax plan that would end federal deductibility and use the funds to lower overall tax rates is also still alive, but several House Democrats conceded last week the plan was very unlikely to pass this year. House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said the bill is one vote short of passage, blaming changes made at the insistence of the governor for the lack of consensus.

“We’ll probably make an appeal to [Culver] to see if he can pick up that extra vote,” Murphy said. “I’m still very optimistic that we’ll get it passed.”

Action is expected this week on a continued push by Republicans for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The last two weeks have seen several attempts to force debate on the issue, with Democratic leadership thwarting GOP actions each time. Gronstal and Murphy have both said there will be no debate this year on same-sex marriage, but conservatives have continued to press, attaching a ban onto several budget bills and the Democratic tax plan still awaiting debate.

Further complicating matters is President Obama’s scheduled trip to Newton for Earth Day. Several lawmakers have indicated they wish to attend the event, which could make for a light workday on Wednesday.

Most of the Old Media were caught up in Lipstick On A Pig, Day Two, trying to decide if Barack Obama had insulted Sarah Palin, and occasionaly noting that John McCain had used the same phrase describing Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. Obama decried the Same Old Rove Politics by repeating (at 2:42 into the clip below) the emphasized “Enough!” from his Democratic National Convention stadium acceptance speech, but then concluded the clause with “Enough Is Enough!“…

…and fans of internet memes all know what follows THAT exclamation.

WARNING: NOT SAFE FOR WORK

Democrats looking for a surrogate to go on the attack could do worse than Samuel L. Jackson and his NSFW anti-snake rhetoric.

Jackson is also anti-pork — eating, not spending — in “Pulp Fiction,” memorably noting, “I don’t wanna eat nothin’ that ain’t got enough sense to disregard its own feces.” But lipstick on a pig may actually help here in the hog state, provided this independent candidate doesn’t split the votes.

Arnold Ziffel guarantees “no pork barrel politics,” so that bridge to nowhere, or rather to Hootervile, is a firm “thanks, but no thanks.”

Independent candidates (perhaps including Ziffel) will split the vote all over the place, if Ron Paul has his way. He endorsed… well, no one in particular on Wednesday, but rather third parties in general and Not McCain in the specific, making a point of saying that he’d gotten a last minute call from the McCain campaign asking for an endorsement and that he’s turned them down. Everyone assumes Paul is really backing Bob Barr, whose running mate this week offered to stand down for Paul. Paul, meanwhile, is coasting to re-election to the house — on the Republican ticket. He may have to eat lunch alone next year.

Or perhaps dine with Joe Lieberman, whose John McCain endorsement got kicked out of the Senate Democrat’s lunch table, but not out of his committee chairmanship. Yet.

As for McCain, he’s fighting the election with the running mate he has, not the running mate he wants. Sarah Palin’s fifteen minutes are continuing, the question being if they will last until Nov. 4. But an analysis of Gallup polling shows that nearly all of McCain’s post-Palin gains are in the South.

In the South, South Carolina Democratic chair Carol Fowler got herself in trouble Wednesday for noting that Palin’s giving birth to her son with Down syndrome was an important part of her public persona. And that’s something I’ve heard Palin’s pro-life/anti-choice (choose your side, even neutral language is near impossible) supporters say as well. Unfortunately, the phrase Fowler chose was that Palin’s “primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

She quickly apologized. But Joe Biden, wiping a little saliva off his shoes, may have been grateful.

City officials are expected to close Ottumwa's Market Street Bridge in the coming days.

The gates are wide open on the Ottumwa Hydroelectric Dam. The river is expected to crest at 21 feet, one foot less than the record set during the flood of 1993.

Volunteers pitch in to place filled sandbags on pallets so they can be loaded on trucks and taken to areas of town where they are needed.

Some people gathered near the water's edge to get a look at the rising Des Moines River.

Local bow fishermen were taking advantage of the situation, watching for confused fish on the lower side of the hydroelectric dam in Ottumwa.

To read John Deeth’s liveblog of Sen. John Edwards’ endorsement event in Iowa City Monday evening, click here.

Former Sen. John Edwards’ campaign announced that it would receive an endorsement from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 199, which represents all of Iowa, Monday morning.  Campaign officials touted its support of the local’s approximately 2,000 members as a “major victory” and an “enormous boost” in the state.

The campaign emphasized how hard Edwards worked to earn the endorsement.  “He has done something quite unprecedented,” campaign manager David Bonior said, because he has “involved himself in organizing” SEIU members across the country.  “He’s just literally been quite astounding in the work he’s done,” Bonior continued.

Although this is good news for the Edwards campaign, the former senator had at one point hoped for an endorsement from the international SEIU.  Last month, the international announced that it would not make an official endorsement and would instead leave endorsements up to individual state councils after powerful locals from the home states of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama prevented Edwards from earning a sufficient super-majority in a straw poll of SEIU members.In Iowa, SEIU primarily represents health care workers, with high concentrations in such eastern counties as Johnson, Linn, Scott and Dubuque.  Although Iowa’s Democratic Caucuses tend to diminish the benefit of support that is concentrated in a small number of areas in the state, Edwards State Director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon considers the SEIU’s 2,000 Iowa members a significant group of caucus goers, noting that SEIU members can influence others in their households and neighborhoods.  “2,000 households and families will make a great difference,” she said.

Senior Edwards adviser Chris Chafe agreed.  He said SEIU members “are leaders, and they know how to talk to their co-workers, their neighbors and community.”

But Edwards earned the support of more than just Iowa’s 2,000 SEIU members.  He was also endorsed by nine more of the union’s state councils Monday, some of which represent significantly more members.  All told, Edwards’ endorsers represent more than 930,000 SEIU members from states including California, Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.

State councils that endorse Edwards will be able to send members to Iowa to campaign for their candidate, but state councils that endorse other candidates are prohibited from doing so by SEIU rules.  This rule may be particularly inconvenient for Sen. Obama, who received the endorsement of SEIU’s Illinois state council Monday and for Sen. Clinton, who is expected to receive support from the SEIU in New York.

“Our understanding of the rules is very clear,” said Chafe.  SEIU locals that endorse other candidates “cannot come into Iowa, they cannot phone bank SEIU members, they cannot run advertisements with SEIU members, targeting SEIU members…Member-to-member contact is not allowed.”